Wednesday, June 21, 2017

More bars! Recently Franklin Hall opened at 1346 Florida Avenue NW, next to La Colombe and Pizzeria Vetri. It's from the folks behind Big Chief in Ivy City, Penn Social downtown, Lost and Found in Shaw and a few other spots. I checked it out last night. It's big.

The hall part of the name is accurate -- the spot is cavernous, kind of a modern-style warehouse or loft with high ceilings, polished concrete floors and such. It's full of picnic tables and high tables with stools, and it was pretty packed last night -- there was also a Jon Ossoff watch party, so maybe that was part of it. The crowd also seemed a bit young, but maybe that was the event as well. There are also games like card games and giant Connect Four.

Their website calls it an American beer hall and they have a fairly big draft beer list with American beers from all over the country: Oregon, California, Missouri, Michigan and around here, with both pints a liters. The pints started at $5, and the liters at $10 (which was Boh and Miller Lite.)

They also have food at a walk-up window: lots of sausages seems to be their staple, plus loaded fries, chicken tenders, a burger or two, brussels sprouts, churros and such. I got the Natty Boh sausage, which was cooked in said beer, and it was pretty good, as were the shoestring fries it came with. Not gourmet cuisine but so far so good with bar food.

The bar is almost the length of the whole spot, so that made it easy to get a beer. The only knock on the spot is that it was really loud and echo-y -- they could use some noise absorbers or something.

They also have pretty good happy hour deals: $2 off all drafts Monday-Friday from 4 to 7 pm, as well as $2 off rail cocktails.

I'd be curious to see what it's like on the weekends if it was that crowded on the week day!